Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Due to the indirect exposure to traumatic realities, social workers may experience emotional responses of vicarious traumatisation or vicarious resilience. Previous research indicated that risk factors (workload and trauma caseload) provoke vicarious traumatisation and that protection factors (recovery experiences and organisational support) can buffer this relationship. However, the empirical testing of these associations was scarce amongst social workers. This cross-sectional study aims to answer two main research questions: (i) can workload and trauma caseload predict vicarious resilience and vicarious trauma? (ii) Can recovery experiences and organisational support mediate the influence of risk factors on emotional responses? A sample of 373 Spanish social workers (87 per cent females) completed a questionnaire online. The structural equation modelling analyses showed that workload and trauma caseload make recovery experiences and organisational support less likely, facilitating the emergence of vicarious trauma. Recovery experiences and organisational support protect people from vicarious trauma and promote vicarious resilience, both directly and by limiting the influence of workload and trauma caseload. These results highlight the need for interventions enhancing recovery experiences and organisational support as a means to promote vicarious resilience and to decrease vicarious trauma. The need to reduce other risk factors, enhancing protective factors, is also noted.

Summary The indirect exposure to patients' traumatic experiences may generate contrasting reactions in helping professionals, such as vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience. Theoretical models predict that job stressors facilitate vicarious trauma and reduce vicarious resilience and that personal resources may mediate this relationship. However, there is little empirical research linking some of these variables. This study aims to test: (a) Whether job stressors (family-work conflict, work-family conflict and role conflict) predict personal resources (coping strategies and self-care practices) and reactions to indirect exposure to trauma (vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience); and (b) whether personal resources predict these reactions and mediate their association with job stressors. A convenience sample of 448 social workers from Spain completed an online questionnaire between October 2020 and January 2021. Findings Structural equation modelling revealed that job stressors generally hindered problem-focused coping and self-care and enabled emotion-focused coping; only vicarious trauma was directly associated with role conflict. Primarily, personal resources predicted the reactions to indirect exposure to trauma and mediated the influence of job stressors in these reactions. Applications In line with previous research, results support the need for personal and organizational interventions to decrease vicarious trauma and promote vicarious resilience.

Abstract
Many states' social policies have implemented austerity and cuts in the resources dedicated to social services and privatisation in providing these services, all of which have contributed to practitioners' precariousness in this sector. This study carried out with 448 Spanish social workers assessed job demands, organisational and personal resources, and individual reactions that enhance or impair well-being. The study examined the extent to which demands, resources and reactions differ according to: (i) organisation sector, that is, governmental (GO), private (PO) and third sector (TSO); (ii) employment status, that is, full-timers versus part-timers and (iii) the interaction between organisation sector × employment status. Regarding the organisation sector, the best results were for TSO, followed by GO and PO; according to employment status, full-time employees obtained a better profile than part-time employees; with regard to interactions, part-time employees of PO obtained the worst scores on adaptive variables and the highest scores on maladaptive ones. The article concludes by highlighting some reasons why privatisation, precariousness and bureaucracy benefit employers and the state, whilst harming service users and workers.

AbstractFew studies have analyzed the existence of homogeneous groups (profiles) in burnout and engagement among professionals, and none in social workers. This study with 448 social workers from Spain mainly examined their profiles in burnout and engagement and the characteristics of each profile in relevant job-related variables. Cluster analyses yielded four distinct profiles: the first, Burned Out, showed high burnout and low engagement; the second, Engaged, exhibited the inverse pattern with low burnout and high engagement; the third, Both, displayed simultaneously high burnout and high engagement; the fourth, Neither, showed low burnout and low engagement. The profiles also differed greatly in work-related variables: job demands (i.e., workload and work-–family conflict), job resources (i.e., support from supervisor and coworkers), personal resources (i.e., psychological detachment and relaxation), and outcomes (i.e., intrinsic job satisfaction and intent to leave). The findings support interventions, individual and organizational, tailored to the characteristics of different groups to boost engagement and decrease burnout and turnover.

Abstract
As a result of secondary exposure to traumatic material, social workers may experience vicarious trauma. However, the analysis of this variable among social workers is scarce. The Vicarious Trauma Scale (VTS) is a brief instrument designed to measure the stress consequence of shared trauma. This study aims to examine the psychometrics of the VTS in a sample of 448 social workers from Spain. The results from the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) indicated that the VTS has satisfactory psychometric properties. Different indices of internal consistency supported the reliability of the VTS. Both EFA and CFA revealed the existence of two factors, corresponding to the cognitive and affective consequences of secondary exposure to trauma. Finally, the correlations of the VTS with other relevant and well-known job variables (workload, work–family conflict, detachment, supervisor support, burnout, and engagement) followed the expected pattern, and the VTS differentiated the social workers by their trauma caseload. Therefore, the VTS can be considered an adequate screening method of social workers' vicarious trauma, and its application recommended to examine the possible risk and protective factors and consequences.

Abstract
As a reaction to specific job stressors, social workers can experience job burnout. The job demands-resources theory posits that personal characteristics would mediate the influence of job stressors on either burnout or engagement. Within this framework, this cross-sectional research aimed to analyze the relationships between work–family interferences (as predictors), self-care practices (as mediators), and burnout and engagement (as outcomes). The sample included 437 graduate social workers from Spain. Structural equation modeling showed that family–work and work–family conflicts negatively predicted self-care practices and positively predicted burnout. Professional and personal self-care practices positively predicted engagement, negatively predicted burnout, and attenuated the impact of work–family interferences on burnout and engagement. To the authors' knowledge, the present article is the first to test the job demands-resources theory with these variables on social workers. The findings support interventions for social work students and professionals enhancing self-care practices to promote engagement and to reduce burnout, and highlight the need to decrease job stressors and enhance job resources for social workers.